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The Washington Nationals hit just 151 home runs last season, the fewest in the National League. Looking for more power to fill that pressing need, the Nationals agreed to a one-year deal with slugger Joey Gallo, two people familiar with the situation said Tuesday.
Gallo, an outfielder/first baseman who spent 2023 with the Minnesota Twins, has made a name for himself with majestic moonshots during his nine-year major league career: The 30-year-old has hit 198 home runs in 863 games. The problem for him is that he doesn't connect consistently; He has a career batting average of .197 and hit .177 with 21 home runs in 111 games with the Twins while recording 142 strikeouts.
Before Tuesday, the Nationals had signed just two players to major league deals during a glacially slow offseason across the MLB. Washington signed Nick Senzel and Dylan Floro to one-year deals in December. Now Gallo joins them. His contract, pending completion, will pay him $5 million and he could earn an additional $1 million in performance bonuses.
At the winter meetings, manager Dave Martinez said he hoped the Nationals would sign a left-handed outfielder. Gallo checks this box. Before adding Gallo, all of the outfielders on the Nationals' 40-man roster were right-handed: Lane Thomas, Jacob Young, Victor Robles, Stone Garrett and Alex Call.
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Gallo offers more than just power: He won two straight Gold Gloves with the Texas Rangers in 2020 and 2021 and can provide strong defense in left field. A first-round draft pick in 2012, he spent his first 6½ seasons at Texas, where he was a two-time All-Star, hitting .211 with 145 home runs in 568 games. He was traded to the New York Yankees in July 2021; He hit .159 with 25 home runs in 140 games over parts of two seasons in the Bronx. The Yankees traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in August 2022, and he didn't fare much better – posting a .162 batting average with seven home runs in 44 games before being traded to the Twins in the offseason. Overall, Gallo has hit at least 19 home runs in every season since 2017 (except for the pandemic-shortened 2020). His best years in terms of power came at Texas: he hit 41 home runs in 2017 and 40 in 2018.
Gallo's batting profile is a far cry from what the Nationals' entire roster looked like last year. Washington finished with the second-fewest strikeouts in the majors (1,149) but also the third-fewest walks (423). Gallo makes up for his lack of contact with solid plate discipline. His career on-base percentage is a respectable .323 despite his poor batting average. In 2021, he had 38 home runs and led the American League in strikeouts (213) and walks (111). Additionally, the Nationals had the second-lowest exit velocity (87.9 mph) in the majors in 2023. Gallo's average exit velocity was 93.0 mph.
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As the Nationals gradually work to build a contender, they have entered the offseason looking for players who can help the current roster while keeping an eye on who's coming. Washington's top two prospects – James Wood and Dylan Crews – are outfielders who graduated from Class AA Harrisburg in 2023. It's not implausible to think they could make their major league debut this season. This also applies to Robert Hassell III, another prospect who had a poor season in 2023 but spent most of the year with Harrisburg.
If one of these young outfielders gets the call, Gallo could slide to first base, where he played 51 games a year ago, or to designated hitter. And as is the case with any player on a one-year deal, the Nationals could sign Gallo at the trade deadline. But for now, he's helping them fill a gap on the roster as spring training approaches.